Geneva National Market Update

Geneva National Market Update

Every segment of the lake access and lakefront market has activity. If you list a $69k shed in Knollwood, like the one that was listed last week, it’ll sell (and it already did). If you list a $10MM house on Pebble Point, it’ll sell, assuming you list it with me (and they did and then it did). If you list a house with a slip for $600k, it’ll sell, and a $2MM lakefront tear down? Sold. Most segments of our non-lake access vacation home segment sell with some regularity as well. A farmette with 10 acres and a neat old barn will sell to a couple from Bucktown who have already grown tired of the 606. A condo at Abbey Hill will sell to someone who wants a Fontana vacation getaway on a budget. Everything sells, no matter what. Unless it’s in Geneva National.

As of this morning, there are 31 available properties within those gated confines listed for more than $500k. Those are single family homes and traditional condominiums, though obviously the vast majority are of the single home variety. The homes are nice, often possessing fancy appliances and fancy trim, sometimes, usually, at least one gaudy chandelier that screams 2004. Some of these homes are newer, some are original dinosaurs built in the early and mid 1990s. The thing about homes built in the 1990s is that if they haven’t been substantially renovated, they’re really quite lame. Geneva National, in spite of an incredible year in the lake access market surrounding Geneva, remains plagued by pockets of heavy inventory.

So far this year there have been just six sales (per MLS) that closed over $500k. It’s mid-November, and without a single pending property in this price range, it’s likely GN ends the year stuck at six. All of 2015 registered just seven such sales, so six isn’t such a let down, it’s just that it isn’t a market undergoing a solid recovery, it’s a market bogged down by too many sellers thinking this is the time to sell. The numbers are telling us a different story- this isn’t the time to sell. In 2006 there were 19 sales in GN over $500k, so if you’re looking to sell in this price range, 2006 would be a good place to visit.

But this is unfair, unkind, and it isn’t the fault of would-be sellers. It’s not the fault of the Realtors. It’s not entirely the fault of golf and its dwindling numbers, even though we’d be foolish to suggest that the decline in golf’s popularity doesn’t have something to do with this. No, this is simply a matter of supply and demand, and Geneva National has, and likely will always have, too much supply. It’s not that the homes there aren’t beautiful, as many are, and it isn’t that the development isn’t one of the most aesthetically pleasing you can find- it is. It’s just that there are too many homes there, and when the built inventory requires more buyers than the market can produce, you’re going to have stagnant prices and tepid demand.

Demand creates demand, this is obvious. More buyers bring more buyers, it’s just the way real estate is. But when you can’t create demand, and you can’t convince a buyer that they had better act soon or they’ll miss out, then what is left? Just a bunch of nice enough houses on nice gated streets. Certain styles of homes will still sell. Those homes that are architecturally unique or otherwise interesting, those will find buyers even now. But the vast majority of homes are going to struggle to find buyers, and that’s exactly what’s been happening over recent years.

I love Geneva National, I really do. I’ve built in GN, remodeled in GN, bought and sold in GN. I enjoy the golf courses immensely. But even in this environment of super low interest rates and broad market demand Geneva National has faltered, and I don’t know what it’ll take to bring it out of its funk. Sadly, the only fix for Geneva National’s upper bracket housing market is more buyers and I don’t mean seven per year. Does this slowdown create opportunity? Of course it does, but unfortunately, as long as this inventory remains inflated GN won’t experience a full recovery.

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About the Author

I'm David Curry. I write this blog to educate and entertain those who subscribe to the theory that Lake Geneva, Wisconsin is indeed the center of the real estate universe. When I started selling real estate 21 years ago I did so of a desire to some day dominate the activity in the Lake Geneva vacation home market. With over $225,000,000 in sales since January of 2010, that goal is within reach. If I can help you with your Lake Geneva real estate needs, please consider me at your service. Thanks for reading.

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Geneva Lakefront Realty is a Williams Bay, Wisconsin based full service real estate brokerage. Information on this site is deemed reliable but is in no way guaranteed. Geneva Lakefront Realty is a Fair Housing Broker and a Limited Liability Corporation in the state of Wisconsin serving the Lake Geneva real estate market.
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